JAMES SMITHSON AND HIS BEQUEST. 35 



and erect buildings, procure books, apparatus, collections, &c. It was 

 provided that all works of art, and all books relating thereto, and all col- 

 lections and curiosities belonging to the United States were to be trans- 

 ferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The ground known as the MaU 

 was appropriated for the buildings and use of the establishment. Noth- 

 ing resulted however from this proposition. 



Through the eflbrts of ]\Ir. Adams, the act of 7th July, 1838, requir- 

 ing the investment of the Smithson fund in State stocks, was repealed, 

 and by an act of September 11, 1841, the Secretary of the Treasury was 

 directed to invest the accruing interest thereafter only in United States 

 stock. 



President Tyler, in his message at the opening of the Twenty-seventh 

 Congress, urged the propriety of making a specific application of the 

 funds derived from the will of Smithson, and said he felt confident that 

 "no abatement of the principal would be made should it turn out that 

 the stocks in which the fund had been invested had undergone depre- 

 ciation." , 



The Senate referred the message to the Library Committee, Mr. Pres- ' 

 ton, chairman, and the House to a select committee of nine, of which 

 Mr. Adams was again chairman. Mr. Preston soon after reported the 

 bill he had ottered at the previous session for combining the National 

 Institute and the Smithsonian Institution, but this was laid upon the table 

 on the 18th July, 1812. Mr. Adams presented a report and bill in the 

 House on the 12th April, 1842, providing for the incorporation of the 

 Smithsonian Institution; that all the money received from the bequest 

 should be placed to the credit of a fund to be denominated the Smith- 

 sonian fund, to be preserved undiminished and unimpaired, and to bear 

 interest at G per cent, per annum. The interest of this fund was to be 

 appropriated for the erection and establishment of an astronomical ob- 

 servatory, the publication of the observations, and of a nautical almanac. 



About this period memorials were presented to Congress in favor of 

 appropriating the fund for the purpose of awarding annual prizes for 

 the best original essays on the various subjects of the physical sciences, 

 for the establishment of an agricultural school and farm, for organizing 

 a system of simultaneous meteorological observations throughout the 

 Union under the direction of Professor Espy, &c. 



No definite action was had on any of these propositions, and President 

 Tyler again called the attention of Congress in his message of December 5, 

 1843, to their neglect of an important duty. The subject was referred to 

 the Joint Library Committee, of which Hon. Rufus Choate was chairman. 



Mr. Tappan, from this committee, reported a bill on the Gth June, 1844, 

 providing that the original amount received as the bequest of Smithson, 

 $508,318.40, be considered as a permanent loan to the United States, at 6 

 per cent, interest, from the 3d December, 1838, when the same was 

 received into the Treasury ; that the interest which accrued to the Ist 



